Load building software for food distributors

How to turn a night of orders into full, legal trucks, what to look for in software that does it, and how Dock to Route does it.

What load building means

Load building is the job of turning tonight's orders into trucks. You decide which stops ride together, which trailer each group goes on, and the order the pallets go in the door. Routing decides where the truck drives. Load building decides what is on it.

For a food distributor the two can't be split. A route that looks short on the map is no good if the frozen does not fit, or if the trailer is over weight before the last stop's pallets go on.

Why spreadsheets and memory break down

Most small and mid distributors build loads in a spreadsheet, on a whiteboard, or in one person's head. That works when the orders look like last week. It stops working the night they don't.

• Too many limits at once. A load has to fit by floor spots, by cube, by weight and by temperature, all at the same time. A spreadsheet checks one column well. People check the one they worry about most.
• One late order moves everything. An add-on at 9 PM can mean a person rebuilds half the night by hand.
• The knowledge leaves with the person. "Store 12 can't take a truck before 6" lives in a builder's memory. When that builder is out sick, the trucks still leave, and the misses show up the next day.
• Nobody sees the cost. A half-full trailer looks the same as a full one on paper. You only feel it in fuel and driver hours.

What to look for in load building software

If you are shopping, here is a checklist that fits food and produce. Ask every vendor to show each item on your own orders, not on a sample day.

• Pallet floor spots. It should count real positions on the trailer floor, not just a box count.
• Cube. It should know the space a mixed pallet takes, so light, bulky freight does not overfill a trailer that looks fine on spots.
• Weight. It should stop a load before it goes over the payload you set for that truck.
• Temperature zones. Frozen, chilled and dry should only go where your equipment can hold them.
• Delivery windows. A store that receives from 4 to 8 AM must get its truck in that window.
• Nose and tail order. The last stop loads first, at the nose. The first stop loads last, at the tail. The software should print the order your dock crew needs.
• Locked loads. When you have hand-built a load you trust, you should be able to lock it so a rebuild leaves it alone.
• Live edits. A late add-on or a short should land on a truck without the rest of the night moving.
• Reasons, not just answers. For each truck it should tell you which limit it hit first. That is where the savings are.

How Dock to Route builds loads

Dock to Route was built on a working produce dock, so it starts where your night starts: pallets at the dock. One click turns the day's orders into legal loads. It checks floor positions, cube, weight and temperature zones together, and each load tells you which one it ran out of first.

Your rules are part of the build, not notes on the side. Delivery windows, "never put these two stores together", equipment needs, and stop or mileage caps are rules the optimizer must obey. Softer preferences it follows when the day allows, and it tells you when it couldn't. You write each rule in plain English, and if two rules contradict, it shows you which two.

Once a load looks right, lock it. A locked load waits until you unlock it, so you can rebuild the rest of the night without losing your work. The build deck shows each trailer nose up and tail at the door, with the last stop loading first, and the load sheet your dock reads is printed from the same plan.

When things change, you edit live. An add-on lands on the cheapest legal truck and the other routes stay put. Drag a stop to another truck and the plan checks itself again. Every load shows its miles, its fill and its cost, so you can see what the night will cost before the trucks leave.

Your orders come in as the spreadsheet or CSV your system already exports. The import wizard reads it, and we map it with you once during setup.